


A Ride Near Cambulac

by ConvenientAlias



Category: Marco Polo (TV)
Genre: F/F, Gen, Horseback Riding, Pre-Femslash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-23
Updated: 2019-09-23
Packaged: 2020-10-27 00:21:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 982
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20751206
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ConvenientAlias/pseuds/ConvenientAlias
Summary: Khutulun takes Kokachin riding.





	A Ride Near Cambulac

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Alexandria (heartfullofelves)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/heartfullofelves/gifts).

Empress Chabi is the one who wants Khutulun to take the Blue Princess riding. So of course she must acquiesce; she cannot disobey the empress. She does ask why, though.

“Princess Kokachin is lonely at our court and has a hard time adjusting to our ways. It would be good for her to be around one of our women, and better for her to have some outlet for her feelings. I sense frustration in her, and it is not good to let angry women grow more and more angry. Sometimes they do something dire.”

Khutulun snorts. Little Kokachin, do something dire? She doubts she’d have the capacity. Still, she supposes the empress would know best. Only, “Why me, though? The Blue Princess doesn’t like me much.”

“You are a good rider, and Princess Kokachin likes riding. And you are a woman, and Kokachin does not trust men. That is why she always has her manservant with her. She witnessed horrible things when we destroyed the Bayaut.”

A small part of Khutulun feels sympathy. But she is a warrior, and she quashes it. What did the Bayaut expect, going against the great Khan?

At any rate, it would be foolish to think Khutulun is any safer than a man. But she supposes it is better for Kokachin’s reputation, too—both to keep her out of the company of men and to display her in the company of a princess like Khutulun. The empress is using Khutulun with more than one purpose. She and Kublai always do have schemes within schemes.

It is not for Khutulun to fathom it all, though. It is only for her to obey.

* * *

Kokachin does not seem much more excited about this pastime than Khutulun is. She glowers at Khutulun as they head to the stables, as they mount their horses, even as they ride to the gates. Of course she is polite about it. She greets Khutulun politely, she offers a couple cringing smiles, she does not say anything uncouth and comments on Khutulun’s generosity on escorting her outside the city walls. “I am not allowed to ride out there alone, after all, and it is good to… expand one’s horizons.” The desire to leave the city seems marginally sincere, even—but it is still a grudging thanks from a woman who would clearly rather be alone.

Khutulun, who loves to ride, train, shoot, fight with comrades, does not really understand a woman who would rather spend all her time cloistered in her own little house assigned to her by the Khan, rarely even attending court meetings except when necessary to keep up appearances. And isn’t it better to ride with company? Then again, she doesn’t much like Kokachin’s company either, so perhaps they are agreed, but it still chafes.

They canter for a little once they are outside the city gates, until Khutulun remarks, “Your horse seems restless, princess.”

“Yes, I think she would rather run. With your permission?”

“If you think you can keep your seat.”

But Khutulun has barely finished speaking when Kokachin kicks her horse into a gallup, and it immediately becomes clear that keeping her seat is not a concern. Her whole posture changes, from dignified princess to experienced rider, and she pulls far ahead of Khutulun within seconds. Khutulun hurries her own horse, trying to keep up, but falls behind little by little, foot by foot. It angers her—and how can such a pampered woman ride so fast and so well?—and she urges her horse harder and harder. Her horse is good, at least, and she catches up at last, and then they are riding side by side, each trying to go faster and faster. The leisurely ride has become a race.

The wind howls against their faces. Slowly, Khutulun forgets that she is with the Blue Princess of Bayaut, and remembers only that she is riding with a friend. The thrill of competition fills her blood, and they push on and on until at last their horses are tired and need a break.

It is almost dusk, and they will need to head back to the city soon. They get off their horses and drink and eat what they brought along with them. They are much farther from the city gates than planned, though at least not all their riding was directly away from it—they can probably make it back before nightfall. Khutulun wishes she could spend all night with Kokachin here on the plain, but that is probably just the part of her that hates cities talking.

Though there is a little of her that also likes to sleep under the stars with a comrade, and is commenting on how nice it would be to share a blanket with Kokachin. “She is not as delicate as we thought—wouldn’t you like to see what muscle there might be under those robes?” Ha. As if Khutulun would get a chance at that. The Blue Princess has her dignity still. Even now, her expression of exhilaration from riding has drained into the same old apathy, now touched with exhaustion. Khutulun wonders if she has felt the same camaraderie at all.

“Let me help you onto your horse, princess,” she offers, when it is time to leave again.

But Kokachin makes an offended expression and gets on by herself, and Khutulun feels embarrassed to have asked. She’d take the offer as an insult from any man, herself, but she meant it well, really. How is she to know where Kokachin draws the line between princess and rider, feminine and masculine? Some people find Khutulun a puzzle, but she thinks she keeps her standards, her boundaries, clear. Kokachin, she does not understand.

But she does feel a little more friendly riding back with her, and tells Empress Chabi that she will be sure to ride out again with Kokachin another time.

**Author's Note:**

> Written for a Sapphic September prompt of "Kokachin and Khutulun and archery and/or horse riding." Sorry, no archery :( but yes horses!


End file.
